Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta has credited Pep Guardiola being an inspiration to him after calling him on the phone on Wednesday morning before the 2-1 win over Real Madrid.
The Gunners recorded a 5-1 aggregate win over the 15-time champions of the competition after a 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium last week.
Arteta admitted that Pep Guardiola has been a big inspiration to him, and credited him for his role in his career.
He said: “I called him on Wednesday morning. Because if I am here, it is thanks to him to a great extent.
“He has been a big inspiration to me. I lived four amazing years with him and I will always be grateful to him. Without him, I wouldn’t be here.”
Arteta was full of praise for his players for showing their mental strength against the defending champions.
He said: “Not only because we’re in the semi-final for the third time in our history, but also for the manner and the way we did it, with the circumstances, the amount of injuries that we had.
“I think overall, I think it shows the character of this team, of this club, and it’s a night to be very proud of.
“What this shows is that the feeling that we have is a reality. And the feeling that I had before the tie, with what the players were transmitting and how prepared I could feel they were, was that we are ready to compete against anybody.
“Now, we have to continue to do that because I think we have some momentum.”
Arteta was impressed with how the players handled the hostile Santiago Bernabeu atmosphere.
He said: “It’s certainly another massive step,” he said. “Where we finished last year and the way we’ve done it this year against the team with the highest honours in the competition, it’s incredible.
“But I want to give credit to them as well. It was my first time as a coach in that dugout and today I realised after three minutes that in this stadium, anything is possible.
“They are specialists in creating such chaos, such a belief, and it’s very difficult to understand really what’s going on in the game and have certain certainty about how we control it. But I think the players showed their own maturity.”
The Gunners became the only team to win each of their first two games against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabéu in all competitions.
